Gauloises Yamaha Catalunya test, day two

Catalunya IRTA Tests
Catalunya, Spain
Saturday 19th March
Gauloises Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards enjoyed
contrasting fortunes on the second day of the MotoGP Official Tests at
the Catalunya circuit in Spain today. Both...

Catalunya IRTA Tests
Catalunya, Spain
Saturday 19th March

Gauloises Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards enjoyed
contrasting fortunes on the second day of the MotoGP Official Tests at
the Catalunya circuit in Spain today. Both riders were well inside the
circuit record of 1'44.641 but, on another day of bright sunshine
and warm spring temperatures, the reigning World Champion Rossi continued
to encounter difficulties with the set-up of his 2005 version YZR-M1
machine and ended the day with the ninth fastest time.

However, his team-mate Edwards was the leading challenger to
Honda's factory squadron, lapping sixth quickest and making his way
through a mountain of tyre testing work alongside Michelin's
engineers. Edwards has adapted swiftly to the M1 after switching from
Honda at the end of last season and today lapped 2.5 seconds quicker than
he had done on the RC211V machine during the race at this circuit in the
Catalunya Grand Prix last June.

The quickest lap of the day was set by yesterday's top man Max
Biaggi, who again stunned his rivals with a late charge just minutes from
the end of the marathon eight-hour session. The Italian's lap of
1'42.260 was some three tenths quicker than the pole position
record at this circuit, set by Sete Gibernau with a time of
1'42.596 last season.

Gibernau and his team-mate Marco Melandri had enjoyed long spells at the
top of the time sheets throughout most of the day. However, as the sun
set and the track cooled, Biaggi and Alex Barros both mounted late
rallies which would see them take the top two places and relegate
Gibernau and Melandri to third and fourth respectively. Nicky Hayden
completed the all-Honda top five.

VALENTINO ROSSI (1'43.291, 69 laps)

"We've had a few problems and worked on the setting to try and get
a better feeling but we didn't manage to fix things today. We
honestly don't know why we are not able to work at 100%.
We've tried a few different ways but we've made some
mistakes. Tomorrow I'll try to win the BMW but today we
weren't fast even on qualifying tyres. We've got a lot of
work to do. Hopefully the weather stays nice so that we can continue
working and prepare for the next test at Jerez."

COLIN EDWARDS (1'43.129, 73 laps)

"To be honest I'm really happy with today. As far as the bike
set-up is concerned, it's barely been touched since the Sepang and
Phillip Island tests. We tried a couple of things out but more or less
ended up going back to where we started, and I feel comfortable with
that. It's a good sign because it means we've got a good base
setting for the bike which should work at most of the circuits.
We'll make some small changes tomorrow to see if we can refine
things but we won't be straying too far from what we have. This
morning I tested a whole bunch of front tyres and in the afternoon we
moved on to the rears, so it was a solid day's work for me."

JEREMY BURGESS -- ROSSI'S CHIEF ENGINEER

"Racing wouldn't be any fun if there wasn't some hard
work involved. I suppose we were too good last year so we've
decided to make things interesting by creating a few problems for
ourselves! We'll keep working tomorrow and see what we can come up
with - there is still a long way to go before the start of the
season."